It’s time to review FM 2013 Tactics again, this week we will be taking a closer look to a tactic that was successfully used by one of our forum stories writers, Kevin. He has built this tactic while managing Reims in the French second division during his fantastic Pole to Pole FM 13 journey and it has brought him good results and a promotion as far as I remember. But before going into the actual tactic review, let’s recap the testing procedure for those of you who don’t know it by now:
We install the tactic and use it through pre-season plus six league matches with Spurs. Then we watch each match closely, see what happens and come up with the best review we’re capable of. We will also keep track of various statistics in order to be able to compare the essential numbers between this and other tactics that have been or will be analysed. It is more or less like a benchmarking tool for FM 2013 tactics.
Now let’s see what Kevin’s FM 2013 tactic is all about.
Formation
The formation is quite unusual, with just two men on the back line, three in front of them, a lone central midfielder, two wingers and two strikers. I have to admit I was intrigued by this formation right away and I was extremely curious to see how the defence would cope with this shape.
Team Instructions
The tactic uses rigid style with an attacking strategy, default settings all the way when it comes to the playing style but two clever options selected in specific instructions: playing counter attacks and focusing the passing down the flanks. The defensive midfielder is set as playmaker and the right side striker (set as poacher) is the designated target man.
Average Positions
The average positions show just a glimpse of just how clever this tactic is. As you can see it’s fairly compact, the DMC has the role to help the two central defenders while the central midfielder is in a great position to dispatch the ball forward, especially to the flanks. The right side striker is slightly more willing to track back and help build the attacks while the left striker will keep the opposition defenders on their toes. The shape of the tactic allows excellent possession because the ball carrier will always have at least one valid option to pass the ball, especially to the flanks.
Defending
Despite the rather awkward shape this tactic is solid as a rock in defence. The two central defenders sit on the same line when the opposition attacks while the two wing backs push higher sometimes to press the opponents while the two midfielders, the DMC and the MC, always press the opponents and try to win the ball back. The two wingers also help the defence and go back quite deep since they are assigned defensive winger roles. The two strikers keep the opposition centre backs pinned, so it’s not very far from a perfect fortress.
Attacking
The attacking force of this tactic is tremendous as there are always good options available to pass the ball and plenty of men forward when needed. The screen shot above shows a typical situation that I have encountered quite often while testing the tactic, a fast attack that sees the central midfielder with several options to pass, either behind the defence for the strikers or to the flanks for the two wingers.
Results
Unfortunately the results didn’t do the tactic full justice. We recorded two defeats and both were highly unfortunate. At Swansea we conceded three goals on as many shots on target, should have won that quite clearly. Then at Chelsea we dominated the game from start to finish, squandered two huge chances and were punished on a corner kick. Apart from those unlucky games, the others were won in style, with plenty of goals scored and just one conceded.
Statistics
Goals scored: 15 (2.5 per game)
Goals conceded: 5 (0.83 per game)
Shots on target for: 7.5 per game
Shots on target against: 2.33 per game
Clear cut chances for: 1.83 per game
Clear cut chances against: 0.16 per game
Half chances for: 2.16 per game
Half chances against: 0.83 per game
Ball possession average: 56.83%
The numbers show that this tactic creates excellent ball possession and a good number of chances, plus a great number of shots on target. The defence is rock solid as far as I can tell and the numbers show that: just one clear cut chance against in all the six matches!
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Good possession and pressure on the opposition defence. (click here to watch a goal that illustrates that)
Good number of chances created.
Excellent on counter attacks. (click here to watch a great counter goal)
Great moments of flowing football created. The screen shot below shows how many players come forward when attacking. In this instance the right winger had the ball ready to be crossed and there were no less than four men inside the penalty area ready to bang it home, plus the right wing back entering the area. In this case the cross was delivered to the far post and Gareth Bale smashed home.
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Might seem weird but I haven’t been able to spot any major flaws in this tactic.
Suggested Tweaks
Just one tweak to suggest, and that is to restrict the long shooting on the two wingers, sometimes they tend to squander good attacking moves by shooting from outside the penalty area.
FM 2013 Tactic Download
Download this FM 2013 tactic by clicking on the image below:
After downloading the tactic follow these simple steps to install it in FM 2013:
1. Put the downloaded file into this folder: Documents>Sports Interactive>Football Manager 2013>tactics
2. Start your game and go to your team’s tactics screen.
3. Click on the little arrow located to the right of your starting tactic name, move your mouse cursor over “archived tactics” and select this tactic from the menu.
I hope you enjoyed this review and I’m looking forward to your comments. We won’t be taking any more entries from you at this point because we already have plenty of tactics on the waiting list. Here’s what’s coming up in the next weeks:
1. Jayshamji
2. Carver07
3. Igor
4. DavidNRAdamson
5. Torgnyson
6. Ryan Daly
7. Aleksandar Kiselinov
8. Bigmac
9. Vinay
10. Mantorras77
11. Paris
MRDNRA
13 апреля, 2013 at 19:19
There certainly seems to be a lot of room for innovative tactics like this to succeed. Looking forward to seeing my 3-1-2-3-1 analysed in 4 weeks but I played a match with it today at the level below Blue Square North and it seems very good at that level and it’s one I came up with kind of on the spur of the moment.
Johnny Karp
14 апреля, 2013 at 11:08
Innovation can always bring good things, I’m quite eager to see your tactic in action.
kevin
13 апреля, 2013 at 21:16
Thanks Johnny for taking the time to test and review the tactic. I was expecting a far worse outing for it especially due it’s weirdness and being in top flight football. It seems though it performed not that bad. I may just have to download it as I accidently deleted the tactic and have been using something else with Monaco!
Thanks again and hope all is well in Bucharest. :)
Johnny Karp
14 апреля, 2013 at 11:09
No problem at all Kevin, it was my pleasure and I had quite a bit of fun while testing it.
Darren Smith
13 апреля, 2013 at 21:41
Looks like a good tactic, strong at the back and dangerous in attack. As you have pointed out the results were unfortunate and rather unlucky, not a true reflection on the tactic itself. Nice to see a tactic made that can use both wing backs and wide AM’s, I haven’t seen that yet.
Johnny Karp
14 апреля, 2013 at 11:09
Yes, it is one of a kind I guess.
PeeDub
14 апреля, 2013 at 01:48
I think Kevin has invented the M-W tactic to counterpoint the W-M.
Johnny Karp
14 апреля, 2013 at 11:10
I guess Kevin knows better :)
Kevin
14 апреля, 2013 at 18:29
I just threw it together and hoped for the best!
Nick Sundin
14 апреля, 2013 at 16:28
Would you say this tactic is based on committing players forward or backward, as opposed to encouraging player fluidity? For example, it’s not often you see wing backs with defend duty.
Johnny Karp
14 апреля, 2013 at 16:40
Actually it’s quite fluid, the wing backs do support the attack, mostly when the ball is in possession of the winger on the respective flank. The only players that don’t press forward are the two centre backs and the DM and the only players that don’t defend are the two strikers.
Gaurav Chaddah
15 апреля, 2013 at 15:42
As usual mate a fantastic review of what looks a very nice unqiue tactic, something I have never really seen before but the results suggest it can work even though their one or two blips along the way, good work Kevin.
Kevin
19 апреля, 2013 at 00:33
Thanks Gaurav!
Edgar
16 апреля, 2013 at 17:07
I’ve tried this tactic out in my Inter save in 2016 for the Italian National Team and I’m having so much fun thrashing top and lower sides. Great tactic.
Johnny Karp
16 апреля, 2013 at 20:48
That’s great to hear, thanks for the feedback.
Kevin
19 апреля, 2013 at 00:32
Really? That’s wonderful news!!
Simon Short
21 апреля, 2013 at 13:17
This has to be the one of the best tactics out there. I am managing Burnley i am in the
premier league i was really finding it hard. so i am using this tactic now and it working really well i have won 8 games in a row. so i would like to say a big thanks to Kevin for this tactic and everyone at FMS for making my Burnley save a lot more enjoyable. keep up the good work.
Johnny Karp
21 апреля, 2013 at 17:44
That’s great to hear. It surely is a great tactic.
Kevin
26 апреля, 2013 at 12:24
Thanks Simon. I’m delighted that the tactic is working for you and that things are going well at Burnley. I’m flattered by you kind words and hope you continue to visit FMS often.
Welsho
24 апреля, 2013 at 14:09
Can’t wait to try this setup! I’ve turned Brighton into a mid-table Premier League team but I’m struggling to break into the European spots with my current 4-2-2-2 / 4-1-2-3 formations, which bring totally inconsistent results (consecutive away wins at Man Utd and Arsenal followed by a League Cup trouncing by Bristol City). Might have to wait until I can sign a left-sided WB though, and the transfer kitty is currently… zero.
Johnny Karp
25 апреля, 2013 at 16:22
Let us know how it goes ;)
Kevin
26 апреля, 2013 at 12:26
I hope you can find your WB though I retrained my players for that role in the pre-season. Look foward to an update
George
28 апреля, 2013 at 02:40
Looks a very good, and unique set-up, will give this a download to see how it fares as I can’t seem to create a tactic myself that works!
Quick question — any shouts or OI’s implemented or is it more just a plug + go sort of thing?
Thanks in advance.
Great work Kevin, and great review Johnny!
Johnny Karp
29 апреля, 2013 at 09:08
No shouts, OI’s automatically selected by the assistant.
Steve
29 апреля, 2013 at 05:05
Reading your comments about the tactic would it be worth changing the team instructions to ‘more pressing’ and the passing to ‘more direct’?
Also, do you think upping the tempo and increasing the width of the formation would help or hinder the tactic?
Cheers. Looks great and want to try it with my Luton side in League 2.
Johnny Karp
29 апреля, 2013 at 09:09
Why change something that works well?
Steve
29 апреля, 2013 at 09:33
Very true. I just always seem to have a nagging need to tinker!
John Chick
1 июня, 2013 at 04:16
tried this tactic with my Arsenal side. I easily won every match in preseason in style, so I was pretty excited- but I’ve lost 4 straight to start the year and am sitting rock bottom. Needless to say this tactic isn’t working out for me…